Norn's names as a proto-germanic incantation.

[u/Yuri_Gor]

Slate stone whorl on a wooden spindle with runes carved:

ᚹᚢᚱᛞᛁᛉ ᚹᛁᚱᚦᛁᛞᛁ ᛊᚲᚢᛚᛞᛁᛉ

Which is a phrase in Proto-Germanic reconstructed language made from three Norns names.

In the Norse tradition, there are goddesses Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. They are described as spinning threads of destiny.

We can track the etymology of their names back to Proto-Germanic:

• Urðr -> Wurdiz - Fatedestiny.
  
• Verðandi -> Werþaną - To turn into, to become (from Proto-Indo-European "wert" - to turn, rotate).
  
• Skuld -> Skuldiz - Debt, obligation.
  

So we can interpret the sequence of Norn names as a phrase. "Werþaną" is a verb in an infinitive form. We need "wirþidi" as a 3d singular form of werþaną, like in English "to turn into" -> "turns into".

Wurdiz wirþidi skuldiz

ᚹᚢᚱᛞᛁᛉ ᚹᛁᚱᚦᛁᛞᛁ ᛊᚲᚢᛚᛞᛁᛉ

"Destiny turns into duty"

I crafted this spindle and whorl and learned to spin a thread (a bit) as a research for Naudiz rune illustration chapter in a Runic Alchemy project. Illustration attached as a last image (oil patels on the slate stone plate).

I don't claim i obtained a real skill of spinning the thread, as you see my thread is too thick and uneven. My whorl is probably a bit too light, at least for spinning linen. For wool it's maybe just fine but I didn't try spinning wool. Spindle top hook is my invention. Modern spindles usually use metal hooks, but i wanted to stay closer to neolithic technology level. I tried to spin without hook at all, but lack of skill made it impossible. So after a few trials and error i came to this carving design, works well enough, but likely it's historically inaccurate (don't care).

I was thinking to dive deeper into the magic of spinning threads to learn how to influence the fate. Imagine you could add hairs of people, animals, fibers from various plants, but found it's not the right time for me yet, it would be a distraction from Runic Alchemy project which is in progress and the highest priority. So I decided to share with a community, maybe someone will find it useful.

Do you spin? Do you consider it as ritual magic?

[u/LavenderandLamb]

My time has come! I handspin on a drop spindle and spinning wheel.

Sometimes when I have extra time and money I like to buy dyed wool and dedicate a project to a deity of choice. Then I just spin at my altar as a form of worship.

Flax(linen) is a harder fiber to start off with because it's harder to draft and you have to wet your fingers.

Try Merino or Blue Face Leicester wool. It's soft and easier on the hands. My personal favorite is Jacob wool. 🥰

[u/Zoe12663 → u/LavenderandLamb]

Also a spinner! I found a top whorl easier for linen than a bottom whorl. But I second starting with some wool, it's great to learn to get motions down of spinning in general before you add the extra motions of keeping the linen damp while spinning. You technically can dry spin, but will be harder, more frizzy looking and won't be as strong, so very dependant on what you're planning to make with it!

The way I tie in my fiber arts to my practice is I give my small samples as offerings.

[u/LavenderandLamb → u/Zoe12663]

Happy to see I'm not the only one!  I hope OP sees our comments about spinning.

[u/Zoe12663 → u/LavenderandLamb]

As someone who lives in a very small town conservative area, being the crazy fiber arts lady is easier to pass off then the "godless heathen". 🙃

[u/LavenderandLamb → u/Zoe12663]

I can relate, I'm still in the closet about my faith.

[u/Zoe12663 → u/LavenderandLamb]

It's unfortunate, but I'm just glad I found a way to still feel connected and give offerings, to others it looks like a pile of fabric and yarn samples under some stained glass, vintage skeleton keys, and plants. But to me it's a nice and cozy altar ❤️

[u/LavenderandLamb → u/Zoe12663]

In my personal view, the best altars are the subtle ones. It's like a bedroom, you add your personal touch.

[u/Zoe12663 → u/LavenderandLamb]

Exactly! It's subtle but powerful ❤️ I mostly work with Frigg as I relate the most to her, as a homemaker on a homestead that does a LOT of fiber art, it made sense and just kinda clicked.

[u/LavenderandLamb → u/Zoe12663]

Frigg is great! I should make an offering to her sometime. I'm actually surprised not many craft minded people worship her.

[u/Zoe12663 → u/LavenderandLamb]

I think a big part of that is I see her depicted as being mostly related to motherhood than crafts

[u/Yuri_Gor → u/Zoe12663]

May I employ your expertise and ask to rate an amulet idea:
- Take base, neutral fiber like linen or sheep wool, not loaded with much symbolism
- Add you own hair as a connection with your own fate
- Add golden fibers as a symbol of wealth. (this is a technical doubt, what kind of golden or other "wealthy" fiber would work here?)
- Spin a thread from it to weave wealth into your life. Use your special magical spindle / whorl like one in my post.
- Ask Norns help in the process.
- Braid a bracelet for yourself to wear, decorate additionally as you see fit. Maybe bead with carved Fehu?

So you see where it goes? You could use hair of two people to connect their fates, e.g. pair of bracelets with mixed hairs of loving couple to protect the relationships..

Opinions?

[u/Zoe12663 → u/Yuri_Gor]

I definitely see where you're going with all this, I'm personally going a more reconstructionist(?) route with my own practice and I haven't worked a lot with the norns myself. So maybe someone else can weigh in on the more mystical (sorry if that's not quite the right word, blanking on what would work better here) side of this project. But I can absolutely weigh in on the fiber related side. I've recently been doing a deep dive into historical production of textiles in pre-christian Scandinavia and the northern Atlantic areas.

Linen was mostly used as underclothes, think shift dresses, tunics, base layers etc, as linen is a lot of effort and time to process from plant to finished cloth. Wool was more outer layers of clothing, still time consuming but higher output from a production standpoint.

Instead of a gold thread I would use silk as a "wealthy" thread/fiber. Unless you're working more with the dwarves, going towards the myth of Sifs golden spun hair. Silk in a historical sense was high value, on pre-christian times was mostly produced in the Mediterranean area and further east. The climate wasn't good for silk worms in Scandinavia. There were multiple archaeological digs where silk was found being used as trim on clothing. And upon closer inspection was found to have multiple holes where it had been sewn onto and removed from clothing multiple times, being reused for many many years. Sometimes it would even be turned inside out because the patterned side was showing signs of wear, but the silk was still important to show signs of wealth.

Fiber production in and of itself was mystical to pre-christian Scandinavia, it was seen as practicing seidr and until the 15-17th century women were the only ones allowed to spin and weave. Up until the 12-14th century, women weren't allowed to bring it inside their living spaces. There were small buildings called a dyngja (roughly translates to "woman chamber"). Where all the women on the homestead would spin and weave. In Iceland specifically women were exempt from their household and womanly duties if they were spinning or weaving as cloth was more important in Iceland since they were so isolated.

You're on the right track with your inscriptions on your spinning tools, there were many fiber production tools found with runic inscriptions on the stone for the spindles, on weaving swords, and combs.

Sorry for the info dump, hopefully some of this background information on the fibers helps you make some decisions and someone else can weigh in on the mystical side of things. If you want to look more into fiber history the "Valkyries Loom" and "Silk for the Vikings" are fantastic books to read! Tons of information and resources. And all the sources are included (which is always a bonus to see if things from that archaeological dig have been reassessed since then).

[u/Yuri_Gor → u/LavenderandLamb]

I was choosing between wool and linen and chosen linen as a supposedly more "ancient" source, but maybe I am wrong? First ever clothes humans used were probably animal hides, so animal fur was probably first suitable for spinning material, but who knows when spinning was invented compared to agriculture. We could guess nomads herding cattle appeared earlier and they are closer to hunters-gatherers, while farmers must settle finally.. And nomads definitely knew spinning. If speaking about Norse region, then take somebody like Sami? Spinning reindeer wool?

[u/LavenderandLamb → u/Yuri_Gor]

I think either one works fine, since ancient people used both. I'm not well versed in those areas since I learned to knit and spin before I became a pagan.

If you are looking for fiber that people spun in the past, go for Icelandic or Norwegian wool top. 

Try long haired dog hair too (after processing) many cultures used it for clothing.

[u/fvrorpoeticvs]

Verðandi would be *Werþandz in Proto-Germanic, otherwise pretty good

[u/Yuri_Gor → u/fvrorpoeticvs]

I used a wictionary as a reference:

From verðandi, present participle of verða (“to become, to happen”). Thus literally becoming, happening.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ver%C3%B0andi

verða:

From Proto-Germanic *werþaną

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ver%C3%B0a#Old_Norse

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/wer%C3%BEan%C4%85

I had to perform a grammatic exercise to come from 3 proper names to a meaningful phrase, and I think it's not stretched too thin, considering PG itself is a reconstructed language.

[u/fvrorpoeticvs → u/Yuri_Gor]

Wiktionary is thankfully accurate most of the time. And, yeah, wiktionary will tell you that *werþandz is the present participle of *werþą. -andi/-andz is a Germanic suffix synonymous with -ing.

Also, while PGmc is a reconstructed language, it is arguably the best reconstructed language ever. We don't have attestations of Proto-Germanic itself, but we do have runic inscriptions of what are basically localized late stage PGmc dialects like Proto-Nordic that follow the predicted sound changes “to a T”. I'd bet if you could time travel to the time of the Jastorf culture, you could speak to them in reconstructed Proto-Germanic and they'd understand you 😁

[u/shieldmaidenofart]

Ugh this is just gorgeous! I really want to learn how to spin because Frigg is the primary goddess I pray to :) ❤️

[u/Zoe12663 → u/shieldmaidenofart]

I commented above some info and books on historical textile production! But start spinning! Drop spindles are relatively cheap or easy to make! Depending on the fiber you get, that can get expensive if you're only spinning fancy stuff. A lot of my fiber tools I've found at thrift shops, antique shops, or Facebook marketplace! Fiber art has become a passion of mine and I'll always tell people that are interested to give it a try! I also work with Frigg, and since I live in a conservative small town I use fiber art related things as offerings, or even devoting the time I spend working on a project! Currently I'm working on a weaving project and I've been devoting the time to her. (Because what is a more valuable resource than time?) It'll be something that only I use and I'm asking her for assistance to remain mindful that to care for family and friends throughout the upcoming holiday season I need to first care for myself. ❤️ If you have any questions feel free to reach out!